I know that singles are passť now, that you aren't supposed to like them, that only kids buy them (I still buy them) because piracy is all the rage and whatever, but I still love the singles chart. Like the Oscars, it does not always represent the best of what is out there, but what it does represent is what is popular. I was possibly the last generation who sat by the radio listening to the actual chart countdown, taping off the songs (onto CASSETTE!) and getting excited when my favourites went up, or went in at number one. I still do listen to the top 40 countdown, and I still get annoyed when someone boring is ahead of someone I deem good.

Anyway, what better way to celebrate 60 years, I thought, than by doing a list of the top 60 songs that have got to number 1! but then i tried making a short list and A LOT OF REALLY GREAT SONGS have got to number one, which might surprise you, but it is kind of true. So I thought, A lot of really bad songs have also got to number one - wouldn't it be interesting to go through EVERY SINGLE NUMBER ONE OF ALL TIME! That way you can all kind of join in and remark at the madness the country was going through at the time.

Along the way there will be shocks (not actual shocks as you could use the internet to look up what's coming next, but who was expecting a SPOILERS Kraftwerk number one?), thrills, spills and lots of arguing.

A little about me: The first single I ever bought was The Offspring's Pretty Fly (For A White Guy) - it got to number one. The first song I had bought for me as a birthday present was The Spice Girls Who Do You Think You Are. This also got to number one. I had less success later.

The very first chart was started by a bloke from the NME ringing ten record shops, asking what they'd sold that week, and then collating the results to make a top 12. If this sounds a bit shambolic, then a) it is, but b) there were probably less record shops in 1952. The result of that first chart, and for nine subsequent weeks, which must have caused the four interested NME readers to worry nothing else would ever by No 1, was Al Martino' Here in my Heart. Alot of the early chart is a bit like this - big voices, middle of the road sounds, because pop music had not been invented yet. Still its fine for what it is - a man showing what an amazing voice he has by using it at a force he could knock you over. It could have been much worse, lets be honest.

Originally written as a song about a guy off at war, but toned down a bit to make it palatable to people after the war, and so that men could cover it too, You Belong to Me had already been around for years, and Dean Martin also had a cover version out at this point. Still, it was Jo Stafford's version (Which was out when the chart first started, so was a slow climb to the top) that got to the top spot, finally ending Martino's reign, and becoming the first woman to go to No1 in the UK charts - with only the second number one! YAY EQUALITY! You Belong To Me is one of those big warry ballads which you can imagine someone singing in a film. Its got quite a weird subtext - whatever you see off on your travels, you belong to me. I guess its one of those weird ones that sounds much worse when a man sings it somehow, perhaps thats why Deanos version didn't do so well.

Sounds like a project designed to keep a fragile ginger out of the summer sun...

_____________________________

"Aberdonians, and with some degree of purpose and right on their side, have absolute contempt for Glasgow. There is a side of Aberdonians who, let's be absolutely honest about this, feel so superior to Glasgow that you can measure it by the yard."

Described by none other than Billie Holiday as "the only white woman who can sing the blues", Kay Starr briefly upset the gender balance in terms of number ones, to put it in a position it would never be in again, and also gave us the first number one which made up bits of words to make them fit a line. This one, is a bit more uptempo than the last couple, the kind you can probably dance to, if its your kind of thing, or you are in some kind of early 1950s nightclub for some reason. Its pretty jaunty, and I can see why it got to number one, if everything else out was ballads. I don't know what else to say except, Kay Starr is the only fully native american indian woman to get a number one in the UK, so there's that.

I know that singles are passť now, that you aren't supposed to like them, that only kids buy them (I still buy them) because piracy is all the rage and whatever, but I still love the singles chart. Like the Oscars, it does not always represent the best of what is out there, but what it does represent is what is popular. I was possibly the last generation who sat by the radio listening to the actual chart countdown, taping off the songs (onto CASSETTE!) and getting excited when my favourites went up, or went in at number one. I still do listen to the top 40 countdown, and I still get annoyed when someone boring is ahead of someone I deem good.

Anyway, what better way to celebrate 60 years, I thought, than by doing a list of the top 60 songs that have got to number 1! but then i tried making a short list and A LOT OF REALLY GREAT SONGS have got to number one, which might surprise you, but it is kind of true. So I thought, A lot of really bad songs have also got to number one - wouldn't it be interesting to go through EVERY SINGLE NUMBER ONE OF ALL TIME! That way you can all kind of join in and remark at the madness the country was going through at the time.

Along the way there will be shocks (not actual shocks as you could use the internet to look up what's coming next, but who was expecting a SPOILERS Kraftwerk number one?), thrills, spills and lots of arguing.

A little about me: The first single I ever bought was The Offspring's Pretty Fly (For A White Guy) - it got to number one. The first song I had bought for me as a birthday present was The Spice Girls Who Do You Think You Are. This also got to number one. I had less success later.

I used to have a series of tapes of them all, and most of the top 10s, accumulated for various pop quizzes and things. Which was a damned sight harder pre-internet downloads and mainly vinyl (I spent weekends in Beanos in Croydon ). Even spent time putting them all on a spreadsheet for ease of use - again, bloody redundant work with t'er internet.

I also kept a ton of 50s stuff in there too - the chart domination of Winifred Atwell, etc.

BRILLIANT idea Rhubarb. I am still of the age where the Number 1 was still a huge thing. Sitting by the stereo with my finger on the pause/record button every Sunday night.

For the record, ahem, the first 45 I was bought was This Time (We'll get it right) by the Enlgand Football Team. They didn't get it right, never fucking have. I was given it on 7th June 1982, for my 9th birthday. The first single I bought myself was Bobby McFreen's Don't Worry Be Happy, an astonishing 6 years later. I remember it clearly (back when WH Smith's had the best record department) handing over my £1.19 of hard earned paper round money.

Great idea for a thread. The charts used to be a thing of wonder, not so much anymore although that's probably because I'm older and my music taste has narrowed rather than any drop off in the quality of music. I remember Star Trekkin' in the charts for fucks sake.

I think the first single I bought was The Bangles - Walk Like an Egyptian. I was 8 years old. The first single bought for me was probably Paul Hardcastle's Nineteen.

< Message edited by Harry Tuttle -- 1/6/2012 9:34:52 AM >

_____________________________

Acting...Naturaaal

Your knowledge of scientific biological transmogrification is only outmatched by your zest for kung-fu treachery!

I'm glad people think the thread is a good idea. I think the singles chart has taken meaning again by the way. It clearly lost itself a bit in that period where downloads started happening for the first time, and so briefly absolutely no-one bought singles (Umbrella by Rihanna was Number One for 10 weeks and is still not her best selling single, because it was released in that odd period) but it appears to be back in some kind of health again after embracing legal downloads. Kids don't treat it the same way as older generations obviously (they don't sit next to the Record button to put their stuff on agonisingly poor quality c90s for a start) but people still seem to listen and take notice of it again, I think.

It is a good idea, I'm just not convinced the number one slot ever really had great meaning. I think the charts did, but we've always been a country that loved novelty hits (not novelty tits as I first typed) and keep buying them and sending them to the top (or near) of the charts.

I think it's simply that people buy them for their kids, that's why we get all the Blobby/Teletubbies style number ones. Because we're a smaller country that kind of buyer is enough to send them to number one. And other than Queen, they're the only singles Gimli has ever bought.

quote:

Yeah but if I can just cover the first sixty years, that'd be pretty good going for now. With my track record, I possibly won't get that far.

You have to keep this going, I want to read your thoughts on the big Christmas battle between Take That and Mr. Blobby.

Carrie Fisher's dad, and one of many husbands to Liz Taylor is next up on what was probably not yet called "the hit parade", with Outside of Heaven, a big brooding strings and big voice combo (which is okay with me, obviously, I like Scott Walker). Outside of Heaven itself seems quite pedestrian, but then it has a weird durndurndurndurn bit in the middle which sounds a bit avant-guarde in a safe show-tunes kind of way. This was already Fisher's second attempt at topping the charts (although the previous single probably wasn't a concerted chart effort yet as they had only just been invented here) and not the last we'll see of him either.

After a few one week successes at Number One its back to a long stay, this time for Perry Como's monster 78 (as it probably has never been described before). Its a jaunty, country-swing affair, in which our Perry is worried that while she's away, she's going to go and find someone else. Number One's had already sort of covered this territory with You Belong To Me, (coincidently, Stafford and Como had crossed paths already, doin a radio show on an aeroplane, how la-de-da) although this is a bit more upbeat than that, it does give an idea into what kind of thing was popular (i.e buttoned up songs about hoping your loved one does not have an affair while they are away). Como was the sort of star that was really big pre-charts, and continued to be popular with a generation on the telly, and at the movies long after people stopped buying his records.